Artwork takes an emotional journey

Yin Xiuzhen creates cities that pop out of suitcases. Joel Ross packed up an entire hotel room. Dan Halter sees the world through the cheap, plastic woven bags so often used by immigrants.

These are three examples of the sometimes whimsical, sometimes thought-provoking art on view through Dec. 31 in Orlando Museum of Art’s “Baggage Claims” exhibition.

Co-curator Ginger Gregg Duggan says she and partner Judith Hoos Fox noticed several years ago that artists were increasingly drawn to the idea of baggage, both literally and metaphorically.

“Baggage Claims” is all about the motion and the emotion behind travel — immigration and its politics, nostalgia for home, the physical demands of a journey.

The first thing museumgoers might notice is that much of the work, which includes sculpture, installation and video, rests on the floor.

“We think about baggage in airports — sitting on the ground,” Duggan says.

As a reflection of our increasingly mobile society, the artists come from around the world: Iran, Zimbabwe, China, Cyprus, India, Mexico, Syria, Cuba.

Some of the artwork is touchingly exotic: In “A Refugee Nation,” Mohamad Hafez creates a detailed miniature Syrian refugee camp in an old typewriter case. Other works are maddeningly familiar: Clarissa Tossin’s contribution is a crate with broken artwork — and the baggage-inspection notice from the Transportation Security Administration, which caused the damage.

A Winter Park resident, Duggan is pleased that this exhibition is debuting locally before touring to other U.S. cities. The Orlando Museum of Art also has produced the catalog that will travel with “Baggage Claims.”

“It’s great to have OMA be the originator — and get our names out there,” Duggan says.

COLLECTION OF THE JAMES HOTEL

© DAN HALTER

KATHLEEN VANCE/ROCKELMANN &

PACE GALLERY, NEW YORK Chinese artist Yin Xiuzhen uses clothing — typically found in suitcases — to create landscapes based on real cities. In this work, the Chinese city of Dunhuang is re-created in shades of yellow. Remarkably, the work remains intact when the suitcase is...

COLLECTION OF MODERN FORMS, LONDON Walead Beshty creates glass boxes that fit precisely into FedEx shipping containers. Then, the London-born artist ships them. What arrives — cracked, damaged, with stickers or labels — becomes the art. The piece at Orlando Museum of Art suffered severe...

JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK Yoan Capote created this piece with the actual suitcase he carried as he left his native Havana, Cuba, to immigrate to New York. The luggage is filled with bricks from Manhattan — creating a symbol of movement and barriers.